MORNING REPORT: Sequoia breaks itself up, trouble for TikTok after former ByteDance exec files wrongful termination lawsuit, reactions to Apple’s VisionPro, Andreesen calls SF-based AI doomerism a cult, and Twitter does not want to believe (in UAP). Also: rumors of Trump indictment as early as today, crypto drama, links in politics + the economy, the Ukraine dam whodunnit, plus NYC literally turns orange. And below the paywall, a glorious edition of the Clown World.

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BROAD TECH

Sequoia splits. Citing “conflict between the funds’ respective startup portfolios,” venture’s premier firm Sequoia is breaking itself up. “The resulting firms — Sequoia Capital representing the U.S. and Europe, HongShan in China and Peak XV Partners in India and Southeast Asia — plan to complete the separation ‘no later than’ March 2024.” Forbes has the interview with the three ‘new’ firms. (@alexrkonrad)

• Also: Sequoia’s London office adds sixth partner (Insider)

ByteDance allegedly gave CCP access to TikTok’s US user data. A wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former ByteDance executive alleges that, in 2018, “members of a Communist Party committee inside the company had access to a ‘superuser’ credential to view all data collected by ByteDance,” and that the company “maintained a ‘backdoor channel’ for the CCP to access U.S. user data.” These claims come on the heels of a Forbes report alleging TikTok stored American users’ Social Security and tax identification numbers in China, where the CCP could have accessed them. Keep in mind that in March, TikTok’s CEO told Congress under oath that he had “seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to [US user] data. They have never asked us. We have not provided.” Yesterday, Senate leadership sent a letter to TikTok asking for an explanation; Marco Rubio’s request for a DOJ perjury investigation is looking prescient right about now. (WSJ) (The Hill) (NYT)

The slow death of San Francisco. The owners of Hilton and Parc 55 have stopped making payments on hotel properties in downtown SF. Surrendering the properties to the bank is apparently more appealing than spending any further funds on loan payments. Not a good sign. (KRON4)

Salesforce offering employees back-to-office bribes. For each day a Salesforce employee spends in the office, the company has promised to donate $10 to a charity of their choice. (Fortune)

Internet reacts to Apple’s VisionPro announcement. In the wake of WWDC23, reception of VisionPro, the company’s long-anticipated AR headset, was mixed at best. The spread, basically —

“Vision Pro feels like the season finale for Apple, combining everything they're uniquely good at — cameras, audio, computer vision, batteries, etc. — into the ultimate consumer product.” (@edleonklinger)

“As best I can tell Apple's vision of the future is a human twitching their fingers on their couch consuming ‘content’, only to emerge, looking like Darth Vader, when their kids beg them to come play.” (@gfodor)

“This is extremely cool and if you have any problems with addictive behavior you should absolutely never play any video games with this device. A/B testing based on your unconscious reactions will get pretty compelling pretty fast.” (@ByrneHobart)

“It feels like a product that you put on in your grubby little unaffordably expensive studio apartment in San Francisco, to let you forget for a few hours that you live in a dark 400 sqft room, and that you are terribly socially isolated… That’s not the vibe I usually get from an Apple product.” (@perrymetzger)

A few more on Apple —

• Apple acquires AR headset startup Mira (The Verge)

• A list of iOS17 features Apple didn’t announce at WWDC includes notable advances in computer vision tech, improvements to mail app security, sharable Apple Music playlists, and more (TechCrunch)

→ Artificial Intelligence

AI good, actually. In something of a full court press on Tuesday, Marc Andreeson posted a Twitter thread, a Substack post, and a series of tweets about that Substack post (then had a16z send the thing out over email, then did a Twitter Space!) arguing that the AI reward scenario is far more compelling than the AI risk scenario. Pulling no punches, Andreesen forwards quite a few strongly-worded arguments that AI doomerism is a cult, that many AI safetyists have bad motives or are otherwise compromised by conflicts of interest, and that the only plan moving forward should be to, essentially, prevent large AI companies from establishing regulatory moats. We’ve tended to agree —

• In Against Safetyism, authors Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber argue that AI safetyism is more of a risk to society than anything the AI doomers are predicting

• In Robots are Racist, Solana issues a definitive takedown of America’s ‘leading’ ‘AI ethicist’

• In It’s a chat bot, Kevin, Solana analyzes the insane reaction a NYT writer has to an AI chat bot; in Bomb the Data Centers (Smart People Agree) he picks apart the AI doomer position

More AI:

• Josh Hawley unveils five-point AI regulatory framework (Axios)

• “Two years to save the world, says AI adviser.” So reads Tuesday’s front page headline of London’s The Times. Except Matt Clifford, the AI advisor to British PM Rishi Sunak in question, didn’t say that, so he Community-Notes’d the headline himself on Twitter. (@matthewclifford)

• First AI-libel lawsuit, Walters v. OpenAI L.L.C., filed in Georgia. Eugene Volokh believes AI libel suits, in principle, are legally viable — but maybe not this particular one, as “it doesn't appear from the complaint that Walters put OpenAI on actual notice that ChatGPT was making false statements about him,” and “there seem to be no allegations of actual damages.” (Reason)

→ Venture, startups, company news

• Keeta, “Venmo of cross-border payments,” raises $17m from ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, among others (FFNews)

• Following AI push, Instabase Inc. valued at $2bn after new round led by Tribe Capital and a16z (Bloomberg)

• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funds catalyzing Chicago’s biotech boom (Bloomberg)

• Wisconsin is now a fusion power startup hub (TechCrunch)

• Elon passes the torch to Linda Yaccarino (Twitter)

• Reddit restructures, slows hiring, lays off 90 (WSJ)

• Microsoft puts Times Square offices on market (Bloomberg)

• WSJ publishes “Instagram Connects Vast Pedophile Network” exclusive (Twitter)

→ Drama

• Microsoft agrees to $20m settlement for FTC child privacy claim (Bloomberg)

• Theranos COO Sunny Balwani has prison sentence cut by 2 years (Insider)

• Tesla treason: head of raw materials defects to Rivian (The Verge)

→ Across the ponds

• Swedish cloud startup seeks €3bn in bid to challenge Amazon (Bloomberg)

• Chinese battery startup makes EV breakthrough with cold-proof tech (Bloomberg)

• Japan aiming to triple homegrown semiconductor sales by 2030 (Bloomberg)

• Chinese ecommerce app Temu surpasses TikTok, Gmail, Spotify May app store downloads (appfigures.com)

THE NATION

NYC goes orange man bad

Speculation over DOJ Trump indictment mounts. “Prosecutors assert that Trump violated a section of the US criminal code called Section 793, which prohibits ‘gathering, transmitting, or losing’ any ‘information respecting the national defense.’” Rumors are this indictment could happen as soon as today; charges could be up to 10 years in prison. (@Twitter)

David Charles Grusch | Image: NewsNation

Psyop, or new era for humanity? Spurred by The Debrief’s exclusive with UAP whistleblower David Charles Grusch (and now a video interview), who alleges the US and other nations have for the past 80 years been in a still-ongoing recovery effort that’s captured entire crafts of non-human origin, UFOs are one of the lead topics this week on Twitter, with everyone from RFK to Cory Feldman offering takes. The spread of reactions —

“As i said a month ago, I don't think we can explain the most dramatic UFO reports via honest mistakes. Either there's a big coordinate hoax going on, or there's some really amazing stuff.” (@robinhanson) (also see: his follow up piece and podcast)

Be confident that relativity is not the last word. We “know” from its singularities that it is an effective theory with flaws. It IS going to be superseded if we don’t destroy ourselves first. And its successor may show us that the universe is traversable. Dream again, dammit. (@EricRWeinstein)

Imagine if someone once worked on a highly compartmentalized program to reverse-engineer captured foreign tech. They get convinced they were actually working on an alien craft. They tell the story for years, convince some UAP folk, and end up testifying to Congress! Possible? (@MickWest retweeted this tweet he had posted previous to the story, in reaction to the whistleblower report)

If this is true it's the most important event in the history of the world. (@ATabarrok)

→ Crypto crisis

SEC sues Coinbase for “operating as an unregistered securities exchange.” “Coinbase’s failure to register has deprived investors of significant protections, including inspection by the SEC, recordkeeping requirements, and safeguards against conflicts of interest,” alleges SEC’s press release. CEO Brian Armstrong responded shortly thereafter: “Instead of publishing a clear rule book, the SEC has taken a regulation by enforcement approach that is harming America” (in March, Coinbase practically begged SEC to regulate them). In the immediate aftermath of the news, COIN dropped 20 percent while BTC and ETH popped ~four percent.

• Coinbase issues “Stand With Crypto” NFTs (zora.co)

• SEC requests emergency order to freeze Binance US assets. “The Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency motion… to freeze Binance US’ assets and repatriate those held by customers on Binance’s US trading platform.” Meanwhile, SEC’s lawsuit had spurred $780m in outflows from the exchange by Tuesday. (CNBC)

• CFTC discusses digital asset regulatory framework. Shortly after the SEC announced its lawsuit against Coinbase, a House hearing focused on deciding which digital assets are commodities and which are securities kicked off. CFTC Chair Rostin Benham said his agency could finalize a regulatory framework in one to two years with extra funding, or two to four years without. (Axios)

→ Politics

• Texas sheriff files criminal charges over DeSantis Martha’s Vineyard migrant stunt (Insider)

• FEMA giving NYC $104.5m to aid with migrant crisis (NY Post)

• RFK Jr. streams his visit to migrant-crossing hotbed on border (Twitter)

• White House once again taps Strategic Petroleum Reserve, sells another 1.8 million barrels (Twitter)

• Federal judge blocks Desantis’ ban on trans hormone treatments for minors (Insider)

• Louisiana passes bill which restricts teachers from participating in the social transition of children without parental consent (Twitter)

• Cornel West announces 3rd-party presidential bid (Yahoo)

• Chris Christie, former NJ gov, announces bid for presidency (Twitter)

→ Economy

• Bankruptcies reach highest levels since Great Recession (Insider)

• JP Morgan: “signs of de-dollarization are emerging” (Insider)

• US Treasury looking to issue $1.6 trillion in T-bills this year (Insider)

• Wharton professor predicts drop in US house prices (Insider)

→ Notables

• In a sort-of-repeat of the 1950 “Great Smoke Pall,” smoke from Canadian wildfires descends on NYC, Philly, DC, making NYC’s air quality temporarily the worst in the world; watch this stunning timelapse (Fox) (Twitter)

• Disturbing study finds 30 percent of Zoomers support installing government security cameras in every home to prevent crime and abuse (Twitter)

• New paper shows politics makes people miserable (shocker) (APA)

• Screen Actors Guild okays strike in event of contract negotiation stalemate (WSJ)

• Tucker Carlson drops first episode of Twitter video series “Tucker on Twitter”

• North Korean hackers impersonating journalists to snatch intel from US academics, think tanks (TechCrunch)

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Ukrainian and Russian governments accuse each other of blowing up critical dam. The facility is Russian-held, but both Russian- and Ukrainian-held territories are in the floodpath. It’s unclear who is responsible for the attack, which comes a day after US officials said a new Ukrainian counter offensive had begun. (NYT)

U.S. allegedly had advance knowledge of Ukrainian plot to attack Nord Steam. According to documents leaked by now-infamous Air National Guardsmen Jack Teixeira, the CIA was tipped off by European spies about a Ukrainian special ops plot to sabotage the Russian natural gas pipeline — three months before the attack was carried out. The European intelligence report suggests a team of divers reporting directly to the Ukrainian commander in chief planned to strike the undersea energy infrastructure. (WaPo)

CLOWN LINKS

Below the paywall: a ton of news from Clown World. We discuss: how the media is dead set on finding racism in the reception of The Little Mermaid, even if it means going to China to find it; a new 1619 Project related to “reparations math,” some interesting stats on England’s wind power projections; a literal LGBTQ state of emergency, the curious case of Elliot Page’s “transphobic” encounter the day after the release his memoir, some custom visuals from resident genius Eric Button, and more.

Media determined to find racism in Little Mermaid reception. CNN blames racism after Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” bombed in South Korea and China. They also cite one Chinese reviewer who wrote that she was “puzzled” as “the ‘Little Mermaid in my mind is White.” Scary stuff. (CNN)

1619 Project’s Education Network offers “reparations math” units to students. Aimed at high school students studying algebra and U.S. history, they focuse on whether descendants of enslaved African Americans should be paid reparations and if so, what the basis of the payments should be. It’s unclear whether or not students would be allowed to answer “no” on the reparations question, since doing so would get them out of the math portion of the assignment. (Fox News)

Study finds it will take England 4,700 years to reach wind power target. The outrageous timeline is a result of policy changes made in 2015 which effectively ban new onshore wind farms by making it extremely difficult to get new projects approved, according to the researcher. England hopes to be carbon neutral 4,665 years before that, by 2050. (Bloomberg)

And more:

• Cambridge University says Anglo-Saxons are not real. The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic also seeks to “dismantle the myths of nationalism,” and challenge the idea that there ever was a British, English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish people with a coherent and ancient and ethnic identity. It’s unclear where the university stands on the existence of Nigerians, Pakastanis, and Chinese. (Telegraph)

• Taylor Swift breaks up with controversial boyfriend Matty Healy. River wrote about Healy’s cancellation here (People)

• Matt Walsh does What is a Woman? Twitter Space with Mario Nawfal; listen here

→ Local drama

California finally finds a crime it doesn’t like. The California Senate passed a bill that, if enacted, would ban retail employees from confronting shoplifters. Never mind that this is already standard corporate policy — reasonable re: liability but humiliating for employees nonetheless — CA politicians felt the need to prove they absolutely do not condone their constituents maintaining even the slightest shred of dignity in the face of rampant, brazen crime. (Newsweek)

NYC sues Hyundai, Kia over faulty anti-theft features. Such is the conventional framing of the latest update in the Kia Boy Crime Wave saga, first chronicled by PW staff writer Nick Russo. (Reuters)

Approval for police training center prompts death threats against ATL city council members, most of which came from out-of-state advocates. (Twitter)

→ Feeling proud

• On the day of his memoir release, trans actor Elliot Page says he no longer feels safe in LA after a transphobic encounter with a deranged man outside of a convenience store. Insane people who hang around convenience stores in West Hollywood just aren’t as progressive as they used to be. (NY Post)

• Armenian parents and Antifa spar over “Pride Day” at Glendale elementary school. Over 60 percent of parents with children at Glenoaks Elementary kept their children at home in response to the scheduled event. In response, a local Antifa group joined forces with a local drag queen congressional candidate and urged progressives to “flood” the Glendale school board meeting. The Armenians — who comprise most of the parents in Glendale — also showed up. (Daily Signal)

• Human Rights Campaign declares a state of emergency for LGBTQ people. The alarmism largely revolves around new laws which prevent children from having life-changing cosmetic surgeries. Normal gays continue to day drink in Fort Lauderdale unmolested. (The Hill)

• Oxfam revises pride video after backlash. The mega-NGO removed a video that featured a demonic-looking “TERF" that resembled author JK Rowling. It later apologized, reissuing the video without the TERF depiction. (Twitter)